The need for efficient cleaning of structures or materials arises within many industrial fields such as at steel- and aluminium working plants as well as within pulp-, paper and wood industries. For instance in the manufacture of steel materials where steel is transported on a belt the surface of the steel often needs cleaning to remove residues from earlier steps of the process in the form of particles and/or substances.
A cleaning device generally used for this purpose is disclosed by EP 2233219 A2 (Achenbach Buchhütten), where a V-shaped cleaning device is suspended above a belt and where a plurality of nozzles are used for blowing a gas medium against the belt to remove residues from the surface. Similar devices are disclosed by EP 0652056 and CN 2254783.
A problem with the above devices, however, is the risk for damages to the cleaning device caused by the belt or the steel material itself bumping against the device, dislocating the nozzles or the entire device and possibly damaging its structure.
When using a V-shaped device, the positioning of the device so that a medium sprayed through the nozzles has a suitable angle of incidence against the belt is also complicated. Adjustment of the nozzles can be a very time consuming and laborious task, especially in case of V-shaped cleaning devices where it is even common to adjust every nozzle angle individually before initiating cleaning operation consuming both time and costs.
Similar cleaning devices are also used within a number of other technical fields, such as for instance automated washing of a vehicle or any technical field involving a belt transporter.
There is therefore a need for a more suitable cleaning device to overcome these problems and achieve an optimised cleaning.